


Your Voice Is My Dream

by Winga



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Dream soulmate thingy, F/M, It doesn't really have Cecil/Carlos but uhm, It kinda does?, M/M, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 03:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5727622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winga/pseuds/Winga
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The dreams began when Cecil was young. First there was just a glimpse of something, of a shadow that never took real shape, then slowly came a voice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Voice Is My Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Written yet again for our 365 days challenge for the prompt Soulmate AU. Obviously I had to come up with a whole another soulmate AU because there aren't enough of those yet.

_Your language is written  
in my dreams;_

_your voice is what I fall asleep to_

_I cannot imagine me_  
_without you_  
_and I haven’t even met you_

The dreams began when Cecil was young. First there was just a glimpse of something, of a shadow that never took real shape, then slowly came a voice.

It was not odd, not to him, for everything happened for a reason was what he’d been brought up to believe in.

When Cecil talked to his sister, she said: “Are you sure?” to which he replied “Of course.” She whistled and closed her eyes but said nothing more, not then. But later.

Later, when he’d fallen head over heels for his friend, she brought it up.

“Is it Earl’s voice that you hear in your dreams?”

He shook his head. “Of course it’s not. Why would it be?”

She sighed. “You have heard of the Soulmate Factor?”

“Of course I have. They say that those who are lucky enough are given certain soulmates to find during their life and these soulmates might last and they might not and no one knows how they’re decided or how you even know who your soulmate is. It might be just a fairy tale that gets passed from parent to child,” he replied.

“I hear a voice too.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Cecil asked and looked at the clock on his wall, pointing dangerously close to ‘late for work’.

“It’s the soulmate factor. It’s the voice of the person that will fulfil your dreams and whose dreams you will fulfil if you allow it to happen,” Abby replied. She sighed. “I have yet to find mine, but for now I’m happy with my husband.”

Cecil stared at her. “You’re not serious.”

“I’m as serious as you can be in this town.” (There was some mix-up with being literal and being serious, but that’s not a part of this story, really.)

Cecil took Abby’s words to his heart but he kept seeing Earl, kept having fun with him because what would be the fun in life if you didn’t make it as fun as it could be. And if it wasn’t hurting anyone, why should you end something that was good in your life?

The dreams didn’t vanish completely but they turned silent and only into shapes that made no sense, because Cecil’s heart was Earl’s, and he wasn’t missing anything, he wasn’t missing something that wasn’t there.

But it ended, eventually. Cecil turned 29 and Earl was still 19.

“You’re too serious about some things. Like your career,” Earl said. “I just want to have fun, you know? As long as I’m still young.”

“I know. We’ve had a nice time, haven’t we? I don’t even remember when it all began.”

“I don’t think anyone does. It’s like we’ve been a unit forever.”

It was all very amicable and they still stayed friends and sometimes met up.

Suddenly the dreams started having voice again, slowly, as his heart left Earl and returned to his own chest. It was like meeting an old friend you didn’t know you missed until you hear their name being mentioned in a conversation that’s talking about nuclear weapons, and suddenly you’re hit with all these feelings and fond memories about them building a bomb and sending it over to the person they loved, because that’s something you usually do. And that was how it felt like for Cecil to hear the voice again, a mumbled whisper that didn’t make much sense.

Cecil talked to Abby about this. “Did the voices vanish for you?”

Abby considered the question. “I mean I think there has been and still is some remnants of love between me and Thomas. But it’s been long since I got my heart back in return mail that I’ve forgotten how it must have been. I still hold onto his heart, and I don’t know if he’s noticed that he doesn’t have mine, or if he just doesn’t care, because I still have his and he’ll hold onto my physical form for as long as he can.”

“Is it possible to actually never meet the voice?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Abby asked and smiled softly. “But I’m sure you will meet yours and maybe I will meet mine one day, because days are long and time works in circles and it’s not like we don’t have time.”

They didn’t much speak of it, afterwards, although they saw a lot of each other. But Abby was busy with her life and trying to keep Thomas and herself happy and Cecil was busy with the radio, now that he had been on the air for some time and he intended to stay for as long as he could. He went bowling with Old Woman Josie often, he had friends. He knew everyone and everyone knew him, of course they did. But no one had the voice he kept hearing and he wondered if maybe Abby was wrong, because it was very rare that someone new came into town and actually stayed or, rather, lived that long afterwards. Or maybe his relationship with his soulmate would be short, and maybe they would die soon after entering his life. He didn’t really like thinking about this.

But after time had passed in a timely manner, which is to say at its own pace, Abby started smiling more and appearing more at Cecil’s place with Janice, her daughter.

“We’ve divorced,” Abby told him after maybe a month of these visits. “I gave Thomas back his resisting heart and told him that there’s no real love there anymore and he said he’d known for a long time and that he had only hoped I would fall in love with him again.”

“And this makes you happy?” Cecil asked, looking after Janice who was playing with her cars.

“Oh but I haven’t told you the best part!” Abby almost shouted and Janice looked up at her. “I’ve met the voice of my dreams and I don’t know how I could not have met him. He says he’s always lived in Night Vale but I have never come across him. He says I have the most beautiful voice and that Janice is the most beautiful little girl he’s ever met and he wants to take me out tonight so could you look after Janice?”

Cecil blinked and turned to look at his sister. “Who is it?” he asked, because he thought that he knew everyone in town.

“Steve Carlsberg.”

“I don’t think I’ve met him, either,” Cecil said, surprised. “But sure, I’ll be happy to look after Janice tonight. I’ll take her to the station with me, she can play with the intern while I host the program.”

“Thank you!” Abby jumped up and hugged Cecil. “I’m so happy I could burst. But I try not to. I’ve heard it’s not good for your health, bursting out of excitement.” She moved to kiss Janice on the forehead. “He’s coming to pick me up in a few minutes so have a good evening, you two. I’m sure I will.”

Looking after her, Cecil wondered if this meant there was still hope for him meeting the voice of his dream. He thought it must mean there was, because why else would the voice have been given to his dreams. He shook his head to keep focused on the moment and on Janice. There was a storm coming and he hoped that he wouldn’t have to send the intern to check it up so that she could stay with Janice.

(The storm appeared to be nothing compared to the stars that started shining too bright that night, like they were coming closer and if they weren’t careful enough they would be engulfed in stars. Intern Katya may have been lost to the stars but at least Janice stayed safe.)

Abby started spending more time with Steve and when she visited Cecil, she told him she was falling and hard and that she could feel her heart trying to make its way over to Steve already, but she didn’t want to move too fast, and she wanted to first talk to him about the dreams because she wanted to know if her voice had been in his.

“I don’t think it’s a waste of time to be sure because it might also be a glitch and maybe we’re meant to be sworn enemies, I’ve heard about that happening, that they mix up the soulmate and nemesis signals and you start dreaming of the person whose sole purpose is to kill you with their bare hands and they think that’s your purpose too and they think that you’re getting close to them only because you want them to feel vulnerable and when they kiss you, they’ll be thinking about poisoning you with the water that you can gather from near the mines. And I really don’t want Steve to think about me like that, I want him to think about me because he loves me and because he wants to give his heart to me and hold mine close to him. Not to squish it like some do. To cherish.”

“So why don’t you just ask?” Cecil asked and Abby hummed.

“You know, that’s good advice. I’m sure I should. Thank you.” Abby kissed Cecil’s forehead and grinned. “You’re coming to dinner on Sunday, right? I want you to meet Steve!”

Cecil nodded with a smile. “Of course.”

Then she was off and before Sunday she called Cecil to tell him it had been amazing and that Steve had had the dreams as well.

On Sunday, Cecil found out he detested Steve. He knew he would have to try and get along with him for Abby and Janice’s sake, but he really didn’t think he would be able to stand longer times in Steve’s presence, and because Abby was so in love with him, it slowly came to be that Cecil didn’t see that much of her any more.

And he still didn’t know if he believed the voice of his dreams, sometimes mumbling, sometimes getting clearer, would ever actually enter his life. Until not that long after Abby had met Steve the voice started getting even more clear, like it was easier to pick up the signals the voice sent and it was easier to broadcast in Cecil’s dreams.

And then the stranger came to town. You know all that. All that happened afterwards. The stranger’s voice was perfect and it was so perfect because Cecil had learned to love it from a very young age.


End file.
